Orange wrote:
Ronaldo is widely accepted as a bargain, not just for his football but even more so for the merchandising. It's also the main reason why he's been moaning the last couple of years, as Real had him on a contract where he only gets 50% of the image rights, which has turned out to be worth far more than his salary.

Bale may not be worth close to 80 million even when you take potential merchandising into account, however the real reason he's worth that much is Barca signing Neymar. Real have to make a massive signing to compete with that, and Bale is the only young player with a comparable profile.

I never argued current value has anything to do with past value but if a player has subsequently improved you would expect to get more for him. The fact that others have used the same argument for Fellani proves this point.

I already conceded the point that we are not rivals and I said as much without prompting in the original discussion. This does not change the fact that our goal is to get into the top four so the situation is directly comparable. It would be just as mad for us to sell Suarez to Arsenal, given our goal, as it would be for you to sell Bale to Arsenal given your goal. This is one of the main reasons why I consider the initial £30m bid to be a joke bid. As I said, with Suarez we have a slim chance of getting top four, without him we have no chance. With him at Arsenal we have less than no chance.

I said, leaving aside the traditional rivalry, because I knew that would be your argument and you are just using it to avoid the question.

You can't just ignore the reasons why I consider the Arsenal bid to be a joke and then answer a different question.

So is your answer a £40m for Bale from Arsenal, a direct rival for a CL place, would be a joke bid, but a bid from Manchester Utd wouldn't be.

The price tags are not a comparison of quality. I don't think anyone is trying to say Bale is as good as Ronaldo, certainly not yet anyway.

But outside of those two players, he is certainly one of the best around. As I said before, he has a long contract and his best years are ahead of him. Plus this is Real. So no point trying to make sense of it. As someone posted above, Real need a marquee signing to compete with Barca's Neymar signing. If they have to pay £80m to get him, I'm sure they will.

I never argued current value has anything to do with past value but if a player has subsequently improved you would expect to get more for him. The fact that others have used the same argument for Fellani proves this point.

I already conceded the point that we are not rivals and I said as much without prompting in the original discussion. This does not change the fact that our goal is to get into the top four so the situation is directly comparable. It would be just as mad for us to sell Suarez to Arsenal, given our goal, as it would be for you to sell Bale to Arsenal given your goal. This is one of the main reasons why I consider the initial £30m bid to be a joke bid. As I said, with Suarez we have a slim chance of getting top four, without him we have no chance. With him at Arsenal we have less than no chance.

I said, leaving aside the traditional rivalry, because I knew that would be your argument and you are just using it to avoid the question.

You can't just ignore the reasons why I consider the Arsenal bid to be a joke and then answer a different question.

So is your answer a £40m for Bale from Arsenal, a direct rival for a CL place, would be a joke bid, but a bid from Manchester Utd wouldn't be.

Look, let's see if we can simply this by removing some of the odd hypotheticals and comparisons of this discussion.

I'm assuming you think Suarez is worth around £50m yes? So the question is, would I consider an opening bid of £30m for a player worth £50m to be a joke? The answer is no, especially as I think £50m is on the high side considering his issues, the fact that he publicly wants out, and that £50m gets you players like Cavani and Falcao, who score more and aren't racist/bitey.

Would I consider a £25m bid for two players who are individually worth £20m-£30m each to be a joke? The answer is yes.

nickthegun wrote:
If bale was playing for real it would be a fair bet that he wouldnt score far off that ratio.

Fair point, but also consider Ronaldo was hitting 30 goals and then more than 40 goals before he left, carrying with him relatively the same ratio of conversion with hi.

If Bale was producing that last season, then I could say there's a good chance of him going to Real and doing that.

If Bale can take his form from the second half of the season on, then there's no reason why he couldn't score that many in total next season.

It's interesting you compare him with RvP. They're similar in that we never really see what they can do due to injury. RvP has only just established himself as a 30 goal as season striker as he's only just managed to stay fit. Bale is kind of the same (but a lot younger, hence why he's potentially worth so much).

Indeed, however I remember even in here the idea of RvP being a world class player capable of 30 goals seemed crazy to some, largely because of his injury record.

Though Bale isn't anywhere near as bad, just as with RvP in his younger years, he simply couldn't be sold for crazy amount until he had consistently shown his potential for at least 1 season.

Bale has had 2 great seasons, but only really the second half of both.

But I have to be honest here, I think people (me included) suffer from the idea of Bale being a bonafide one of the best in the world due to because he's....well, Welsh. Just seems a tad too local, and what are the odds of Wales producing possibly the 3rd best player in the world?

Just seen this toe curling video on twitter made by Tottenham fans.
Be warned: Your toes will curl while watching it. I could only last 30 seconds before i died from second hand embarrasment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90TUbQixtsA#at=24